


When life truly starts

by PleaseDontFindThisMom



Series: Different types of soulmates [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Canon Compliant, Hurt Peter Parker, Precious Peter Parker, Soulmate-Identifying Timers, Soulmates, Spider-Man: Far From Home (Movie) Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-18 21:27:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29740119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PleaseDontFindThisMom/pseuds/PleaseDontFindThisMom
Summary: In a universe where you have timer in your wrist counting down to the moment when you meet your soulmate, Peter is anxious to meet his
Relationships: Michelle Jones & Peter Parker, Ned Leeds & Peter Parker
Series: Different types of soulmates [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2155104
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16





	When life truly starts

_ Timer! To know when life truly starts! _

_ Humans are social beings not meant to be alone. Humans are pack animals; we thrive in groups. Not only is it easier to survive, it’s more fulfilling for us. _

_ But there are so many people in the world. They can’t all be suited for you now, can they? You are unique, one of a kind, not everyone will get along with you, will they? _

_ No worries! Timer is there to count down to the moment when you meet the ideally suited person for you. They are going to be just as one of a kind as you are, fill in the hole of your heart without seams and fit together with you like a puzzle piece. Breathing itself will seem twice more worth it with your soulmate than without them. _

_ There is nothing more fulfilling than being with your optimal person, your soulmate. So buckle your seatbelts and get waiting for the magical moment of meeting them.  _

_ Together you will be the most content, to the end of times surely! And as you sit next to each other one the ride we call life, you are sure to commit to your relationship with everything you have! _

_ Timer! _

_ To know when life truly starts! _

  
  
  


As children it was usual to compare timers; next to no one had met theirs yet and everything about timers seemed innocent and fun. It was like a promise of a time where you would have eternal happiness with the most wonderful person.

That changes when you grow up. Timers are still on display, the time may be asked even in casual small talk, but there is no more purity in it - if you haven’t met your soulmate, that is. If you haven’t met your soulmate there is just the underlying need, stress to meet them, grating on your nerves.

Peter was no different from anyone else. He wanted to desperately meet his soulmate, wanted to be with the one. He didn’t even have any delusions about it; life could still suck and kick ass but everything would be easier with someone so well suited to you to suffer through it with, right?

Checking his wrist again even if he knew could count the remaining seconds by heart, Peter was faced with  **13:249:36497** .

Years, days, seconds.

He wouldn’t meet his soulmate for over a decade.

  
  
  


Contrary to most people, Peter loved high school. He loved the lessons, the learning material, the studying. 

Thought given how much he disliked the people there, it may be more accurate to say he only liked high school.

“Get out of the way freak!” 

As his shoulder hit the wall with loud thud, Peter was yet once again left to wonder what he could have possibly done to get onto Flash’s bad side. As far as he knew he had just existed and the boy had decided that the shorter brunet belonged under the heel of his overpriced shoe.

Ned glared at Flash’s furthering back. “You okay dude?” Peter couldn’t help but smile; Ned wasn’t his soulmate but he was the next best thing he could possibly have. And wasn’t that a comforting thought; if someone as amazing as Ned wasn’t his soulmate how amazing would his soulmate be?

“Yeah, yeah, didn’t hit the wall too hard.” Ned narrowed his eyes like he didn’t really believe Peter but the bell ring forced them to move along. They took their usual seats at the back of the physics class and tried to look like they were listening.

“I wish he wouldn’t call you a freak thought, that is offensive to you at best and offensive to society at large at worst.” Even if the words were serious the melodramatic tone betrayed Ned’s relaxed mood. Peter stifled a laugh.

“He just can’t be bothered to come up with anything original I guess.”

“Like homework answers.”

The burn may have been lame but they both giggled anyway, yearning a hard stare from their teacher.

  
  
  


Not long after the high fever had died down, Peter noticed the, alarming, changes of his body. He had abs for god's sake!

With the cover of recovering from the fever he took a couple days off school to examine what had happened to his body. The results were more than shocking, not only because radioactive spider bites were apparently good for you but because he had won some sort of superpower lottery.

Super strength. One ruined alarm clock, door off it’s hinges and porcelain cup that had just caved in his grip.

Enchanted healing. As the shards were picked out of his hands, face and body the cuts healed almost immediately.

Enchanted senses. He could hear traffic for miles. There was a baby crying four floors over. He could smell his laundry all the way to the kitchen. He could see every fiber of his sheet when staring at it from the other side of the room.

Stickiness. He burritoed himself into his sheets, almost fell on his face when his feet stuck to the floor and couldn’t figure out how to release the door knob for ten minutes.

Sixth sense. As he had marveled how clearly he could see every piece of dust on the ceiling, there had been a tingle in the back of his neck just before he could hit the table.

Superhuman speed and reflexes. Swatting a fly fast enough to not really notice it until it was dead in his hand.

Agility. Instinctively doubling over with alarming lack of pain as his feet stuck to the floor.

Durability. The feeling of pain almost numbed as the porcelain cut his skin.

They were all skills of sorts of which he didn’t quite find out the full extent of until much later. But there was one change he could map out entirely right away.

His clock had went from thirteen years to 4:72:6723.

  
  
  


Sometimes Peter was scared of meeting his soulmate, scared of starting a family with someone. But outside of those fear filled moments he did realize he wanted a family, big one if possible.

But that wouldn’t happen unless his soulmate was a girl.

“Your cousin's soulmate is a girl too?” Ned nodded solemnly. 

“Yeah, and she really wanted kids too. But they can still adopt if they want.” 

“It’s not the same though.”

Silence fell after that. Peter had never paid mind to what if his soulmate was a guy. Not that it was unusual, around 0,8 % of population had member of same sex as soulmate, but still unusual enough for Peter to have failed to consider his soulmate might be a man.

Peter continued his musing and hardly noticed when Ned rose from the table to get more water. A man. He supposed he could find males attractive enough and he could work with platonic soulmate too. Raising his head to look at Ned from across the room he was once again reminded of his fondness for his best friend. He could work with Ned as a soulmate.

Yeah, he would be just fine.

  
  
  


When everything was said and done regarding the whole fiasco with Liz, Peter found himself fancying Michelle. MJ. His very cool friend.

The timer didn’t necessarily hit zero when you met your soulmate but rather when you both were the version of yourself that could be called each other’s soulmate. So it was surprisingly common for the timer to hit zero between people that had met already, even years ago.

As Peter marveled at his newfound feelings towards his friend, he found himself hoping his timer would hit zero together with MJ’s. He had actually never seen MJ’s counter so it was possible. 

And even if the times differed, they could still be soulmates - the timers stopping at different times wasn’t too uncommon after all. Well, not uncommon in that 0,003 % of couples hit the counter at different times but hope dies last, doesn’t it?

  
  
  


The battle - no, war - against Thanos was both one of the most grueling experiences of Peter’s life but also eye opening. Thanos had said that his goal was to erase half the life from the universe, the motivation being seeing his own planet crumble under overpopulation. But the mad Titan couldn’t seem to grasp that not every planet would be subjected to overpopulation.

Take Earth for example. One could reproduce only with their soulmate which kept a number of people down. And when they were bordering on the population getting too big, more same sex couples emerged and vice versa. Though the amount of people had blown up since the start of the twentieth century, they could more than maintain 5 billion people with their planet’s resources. 

So in short Thanos was a fool that couldn’t consider all variables. 

After the snap economy had in fact collapsed, there was a shortage of working people everywhere and more orphans than anyone could deal with.

Or so Peter had heard - he had been busy being dusted for the five years after all. 

And if the rebuilding after the first snap had been hard, taking closer to four years to even begin to settle, the rebuild after the second snap had been even harder. Many of the kids had been adopted, some having forgotten their parents from before the first snap, the amount of workplaces had already been adjusted to half the amount. Some returned from being snapped only to find their family had already moved on.

The amount of suicides was even higher after the second snap than the first. 

Peter was just relieved he still had Ned, MJ and May.

And in a way he was relieved to have Flash too. It said wonders about the state of the world when having your bully back was a relief.

  
  
  


When Betty and Ned’s timers dinged as they sat next to one another, Peter was glad. Little bit jealous, yeah, but mostly glad. Ned was amazing and deserved the best and from what little Peter knew of Betty Brant she was a good fellow. 

So just a little bit jealous.

Or maybe a little bit more jealous as he had to look at Brad trying to woo MJ. 

He needed more information.

“So, Brad. Has he already met his, the one?” MJ rolled her eyes at the poorly worded question, making Peter cringe internally. Trying to look cool and collected as he fell into step next to the girl Peter wished things hadn’t ended so badly with Liz, that he had more experience. 

His cool walk is interrupted when MJ slaps his shoulder playfully. And he staggers from it. Very cool Parker. “No. He actually asked if our times match.” This is your chance Parker.

“Oh, so your times didn’t match?” MJ gives him side eyes but the expression is more amused than put out.

“No we didn’t.” Peter doesn’t say anything, hoping that Michelle would continue, tell when her time is. Hoping that they would match, hoping that-

“Mine is still a couple years away and his is in a couple months.”

Damn it.

  
  
  


“It’s just this connection, you know? You are there and you hear the ding and your eyes lock and it’s just there.” 

Peter was definitely not jealous of Ned. Or his connection to Betty. Or having a soulmate in the first place. Nope.

The connection thought… It sounded amazing. The feeling of being connected to someone on such a deep level, so tightly, it sounded wonderful. 

It was said to be the most amazing feeling in the world, topping everything else. To have a bond with someone and nurture it was the single most important and incredible thing to happen in your life. The single most. There was nothing else that would come even close to that. 

Peter sighed and rolled off his bed lazily. He wouldn’t have that connection with MJ most likely unless they really did just count down at different times. 

It would feel nice to have soulbond with MJ. Well, it would feel nice to have it with anyone.

  
  
  


Nick Fury was an asshole. 

Quentin Beck in turn was brilliant. 

Getting sucked into SHIELD work was so not what Peter wanted right now (it would take years before he got over Tony’s death and was ready to approach that part of his potential future, not to even mention having to sort out the whole EDITH thing) but it wasn’t all bad. And the feeling of being important, being scouted, it felt nice. Precious.

God Peter needed more validation.

As unhealthy as that was.

  
  
  


Life is sort of empty. At least for humans. You live for a blink in the big picture, affecting very little if at all. That’s why having purpose, having some sort of fulfillment was so important.

For Peter that had been Spiderman for many years now. 

Not only was he making a difference, he was doing meaningful work that gave him a sense of existence. Every time he saved a life, helped someone, he was affecting people’s lifes. It wasn’t pointless. 

Don’t understand Peter wrong, having family and friends and his studies was also important but they were missing something, his life was missing the thing that put him on the map and made him different from an ant that died without anyone knowing it existed. People knew Spiderman existed.

So Spiderman was the one thing that gave Peter actual sense of purpose.

And having a soulmate would give him fulfillment. It would fill out the hole, connect him with the world on a scale that wasn’t in his reach alone. 

His timer would reach zero very soon.

His life would truly start.

  
  
  


Apparently nothing they teach you at school will prepare you for having your best friend finding their soulmate. 

It was obvious that you would be happy for them, it was their soulmate for pity’s sake, but it wasn’t obvious how much distance that would put between you two.

No, school taught you how amazing it would be to find your soulmate, school would help you find the person whose clock would count down at the exact same moment as yours did, school taught you the importance of finding and valuing one’s soulmate.

But it didn’t teach you what to do when your best friend kicked you out of your shared room so they could spend time together with their soulmate. Or rather when the soulmate and your best friend kicked you out together.

Peter sighed, walking down the corridor for umpteenth time to spend the time. He supposed it wasn’t fair to be bitter about it, he would behave similarly had he found his soulmate. 

  
  
  


So, giving the glasses to Beck turned out to be the dumbest thing Peter had ever done. And coming from a boy who had hijacked his way into lethal war in space was saying much.

Confessing his rather fatal mistake to MJ took guts but thinking about facing Fury with his mistake made him want to hurl over the railing of the bridge and move into Australia under a new identity. Or even better, move off Earth. Maybe the Guardian’s would take him with them.

At least Michelle was willing to help him with the whole mess.

He just couldn’t catch a break.

  
  
  


Fury’s face bled away, revealing Quentin - or rather Mysterio - under it. Soft ding sounded in the air.

Numbly, Peter turned to look at his clothed wrist. He couldn’t see it but he knew, he had heard it, he remembered the time.

Raising his face up to look at Mysterio he found the man grinning. It should have been happy but it was not. It was predatory, all teeth. 

“My timer sounded when I saw you for the first time without your mask.”

The rest of his life…

...with him.

Peter doesn’t register the train as it hits him.

  
  
  


_ Timer! _

_ To know when life truly starts! _


End file.
